Expelled

I’ve known Karl Giberson over a decade. In the early days, he was a respectful critic of ID. That now seems to have changed with the publication of his most recent book, Saving Darwin: How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (go here for the Amazon listing). The subtitle is curious. Ordinarily one believes in a religion and attains competence in a field of scientific inquiry (does it matter if I believe that quarks really exist? isn’t it enough that I can apply the standard model?). Giberson’s subtitle inverts our ordinary epistemic attitudes (was it intentional?). The title is more interesting still — Saving Darwin. Why should anyone want to save Darwin? Aren’t his ideas strong enough so Read More ›

I have been invited to an advance screening of Expelled in Canada (the widely denounced #5 political documentary about the attempts to silence the intelligent design guys) on Thursday, June 26, at 7:00pm at The Varsity Theatre – 55 Bloor St. West in Toronto.

The film opens the following Friday June 27 (or Saturday June 28) at the Cineplex Odeon.

(People who know me may recall that I have sent numerous pointed communications to the Expelled team because they would not send me a DVD. But at Write! Canada [where I received a standing ovation – see “Intellectual freedom: Survival is design not chance”] I ran into, of all people, the screenwriter Kevin Miller. A fellow Canadian, he assured me that he couldn’t get a DVD either. Just shows you. The Expelled team better serve really good hors d’oeuvres at the advance screener. )

But now I wonder who will picket or try to crash? You know, I would love to sweep into the show, fanned by energetically waving picket signs. It beats paparazzi cold and makes up for not having a snow white ermine or designer gown.

Picket? Try to crash? There was a big hoo-haw over the screening at the Mall of the Americas when “raving atheist” biologist PZ Myers got ejected by line producer Mark Mathis.) Perhaps I will recognize some prominent Toronto figures strutting importantly on the sidewalk. I shall make a note to ask if the catering staff might be permitted to offer them animal crackers, OJ, and milk.

Picketers please note: There is a wide sidewalk, and plenty of coffee shops near the Varsity. The restrooms in the Cumberland Terrace are usually pretty clean too.

Also, be reassured, picketers! The government-funded Nanny Monster is always right, and she says that neither the universe nor life forms show evidence of design, despite the evidence. And in our random universe, the biggest Monster should rule, and that is She. Read More ›

Well, Expelled, now back up and running legally, I guess, is still #5 in documentaries, and has grossed as of May. 29, 2008, $7,614,754. In theory, it can now be shown in Canada. There is much local punditry of the worthless “don’t see it!” variety – which is interesting in view of the show trial of commentator Mark Steyn currently in progress in Vancouver.

The unspeakables who would protect Canadians from anything that might upset or offend us are doing very nicely indeed with our “human rights” commissions. The picketers are carrying blank picket signs, of course. My comments are here. 

Here are some links from The Post-Darwinist on the Ono judgment: “Oh no, Ono! Judge rules, the film about the ID guys can still be shown”

Also, just up at Colliding Universes (and at The Mindful Hack, below):

Newton: Does every genius need a tincture of crackpot?

But then maybe the entire universe is just a wave function?

Multiverse theory: Replacing the Big Fix with the Sure Thing? Read More ›

First straw flies past: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is playing the “religion” card, of course:

… the statement noted, more than 11,000 Christian leaders in the United States have signed a letter affirming that evolution does not conflict with religious faith. The United Church of Christ recently sent out a pastoral letter expressing a similar position. Evolution “is based on a diverse and robust body of physical evidence, from fossilized bones to radiometric measurements of the ages of the Earth’s rocks,” the statement says. But the movie, by conveying misinformation about science and researchers, seeks to force religious viewpoints into science class …

AAAS’s PR people think that today’s serious Christians are stupid. That we haven’t seen the film, don’t know that the key issue it raises is intellectual integrity, and don’t even know that their tame clergy are, for the most part, the phantoms of a discredited liberalism – haunting churches awaiting rapture into condos.

Second straw: If AAAS is the large event, here’s a small one: A reader wrote me last night wanting to know what I thought of the fact that Expelled had flopped at the box office.

Much surprised, I wrote back, pointing out, Read More ›

The essay by Jeffrey Schloss – excerpted in considerable part here – worriting about the “walls” the Expelled documentary is creating is a classic.

Real Christians, presumably, wouldn’t demand an accounting about the rapidly growing evidence against Darwinism and other materialist isms. And real Christians wouldn’t make a film about the people who get Expelled for doing so.

(Of course, all ID sympathizers are Christians, right? Hear that, Ben? David? Gerald?)

Schloss’s essay illustrates the fact that theistic evolutionism (vending Darwin to the masses on behalf of Christ) is dead. Dead because it is a solution to a problem that does not exist any more. Read More ›

At the Beyond Expelled worldview conference, Nancy Pearcey explored the impact of evolution vs ID. She describes skeptic Michael Shermer’s conversion to evolution & Scarlett Johansson’s acting on belief in evolution.
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The intelligent design of life

Nancy Pearcey tells crowd that Darwinism has evolved into more than just a theory (with VIDEO)
Rachel Kyler, Thursday May 8th, 2008

NICEVILLE — Not religion pitted against science, but philosophy against philosophy.

In a truly liberal education system, that’s how academic Nancy Pearcey says educators would approach intelligent design and the theory of evolution.
Read More ›

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has a new set of entries as a result of Ben Stein’s EXPELLED. And then there are some, like Richard Dawkins, who have a long history in the IMDb:

Cross posted over at “The Christian Watershed.”

 A few years ago I was an assistant coach to a high school debate class. One common thing that must be drilled into the heads of high school debaters is to do their best to avoid insulting the other team. I didn’t always follow this advice in high school which led to me making amazing arguments that the other team simply couldn’t refute, but losing the round because the conceited nature of my style. The point being – even if you make good arguments, it doesn’t mean a thing if people can’t see past the insults and arrogance you present.I now turn to the current debate over the movie Expelled. There’s a difference between being ‘quirky’ or ‘witty’ and down right insulting. Unfortunately it seems the critics of Expelled have simply helped to fulfill the accusations the movie makes against Darwinists.

“It’s completely stupid!”

“It’s idiotic!”

“Only someone who is brain damaged could possibly believe this movie!”

These are the accusations I have heard against the movie. None of them make an actual claim against the content of the movie, other than “how dare they compare Darwinism to the Holocaust.”

Read More ›

Robert Meyer provides thought provoking insight into the major issues surrounding Expelled.
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Ben Stein’s Dangerous Idea
Robert Meyer, May 6, 2008, New Media Alliance – Robert E. Meyer

Ben Stein has a dangerous idea. His idea is that professors and teachers who express skepticism about Darwinism are likely to find themselves not granted tenure, castigated and ridiculed, and disqualified from the opportunity to have research papers published.
. . .
Having reviewed the movie myself, it appeared that Stein was trying to make the case for academic freedom, not attempted to convert anyone to a particular ideological position.

Read More ›

This just in from a contact at Campus Crusade: Three documentaries on DVD, perfect for an ID collection, are now available for just $29.95 -– about $10 per DVD: Campuscrusade.com/8110E The three documentaries are: The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel Unlocking the Mystery of Life The Privileged Planet The Privileged Planet was, of course, co-written by Guillermo Gonzalez, Ph.D. Ben Stein’s Expelled asserts that Dr. Gonzalez was denied tenure for challenging Darwinian Orthodoxy. Perhaps someone you know would enjoy seeing what is so controversial about Gonzalez’ ideas in particular and Intelligent Design, in general. The DVDs present solid scientific concepts in language the layman or laywoman can understand, with state of the art, memorable graphics.

Taking a break from “Imagining” no heaven, no hell, no Yoko Ono, and no delay till the Expelled DVD comes out, I note where John Lilley, Baylor’s president, has seen fit to defend his institution in the light of the unflattering portrait in Expelled. Except he doesn’t exactly. In the form letter – apparently written to people for whom, in his words, Expelled has been a “source of concern” – he manages to say nothing at all. Unless, that is, you believe faith and science are in conflict, in which case he reassures you that they aren’t. But if you do believe that, why would you want to attend or fund Baylor – or any religiously affiliated university? And why would Read More ›

So far it is imaginary.

Ono is seeking at least $75,000 in damages and injunctive relief. (Her case turns on the use of some lines from her late husband John Lennon’s ”Imagine”*. )

On April 30, 2008, a New York-based United States judge, Sidney Stein, enjoined “further distribution” of Expelled until Yoko Ono’s lawsuit for copyright infringement is heard.

A legal eagle friend has shown me a copy of the judge’s order, with hand-scrawled changes. It means that new copies of the film can’t be sent out until the hearing later this month, but so far as I can see, the current copies of the film can continue to be shown.

*While finding the link to Lennon and “Imagine” on YouTube, I noticed quite a number of attacks on Expelled. But so far no one seems to have pirated footage of the film, or at least not that they are crowing about. I almost think that’s too bad. I am getting impatient. So many American friends have seen it, but it is not coming to Canada till at least June 6.

While we are here, how is Expelled doing after 17 days?

Well, as I write this (7:18 EST), Read More ›

Scholar Richard Weikart, author of From Darwin to Hitler asked me to publish this essay to Uncommon Descent. You can read more from Weikart here and my review of his highly recommended book is here. (Note: If you care about this subject, don’t listen to glib excuses and misdirection; read the book.)

I am glad to say that the Expelled flapette on this subject has spiked demand for Weikart’s meticulously researched work, especially because it features the work of Darwinist Nazis who had never before even been translated into English:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,259 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories: (What’s this?)
#3 in Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine > Medical Ethics
#6 in Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Discrimination & Racism
#11 in Books > History > United States > African Americans
(at 9:41 am EST)

For a while, Weikart was the target of unscholarly attacks by people determined to obscure the role of Darwinism as an underlying belief very well suited to Hitler’s Third Reich.

Anyway, here is his essay:

Was It Shameful for “Expelled” to Connect Darwinism and Nazi Atrocities?

Many critics of Ben Stein’s new film, “Expelled,” have expressed distaste—and some have gone absolutely apoplectic—over his linking of Darwinism with Nazism. In an MSNBC article bioethicist Arthur Caplan called the film immoral and even ridiculously calls Stein a Holocaust denier, because of his audacity to link Darwinism with Nazi atrocities. Scientific American calls this aspect of the film shameful.

We need to clarify first that neither Stein nor anyone else in “Expelled” ever claimed that Darwinism was the sole culprit for the Nazi program for killing the disabled or exterminating the Jews. The argument was more circumspect: Darwinism was an important—but by no means exclusive—ingredient in the Nazi worldview that motivated them to pursue death for the “inferior” as a means to foster evolutionary progress. This is irrefutable, if anyone will simply examine the evidence (just read the chapter “Nation and Race” in Mein Kampf).

If we focus on the Nazi program to kill the disabled, we find that just about all historians who have examined the evidence have concluded that Darwinism did have something to do with it. The museum in Hadamar (which Stein visited in the film) and the accompanying book for sale there both explain the influence of Darwinism on the Nazi euthanasia program. Read More ›

Mark Perakh now resorts to calling Ben Stein’s EXPELLED a “pseudo-documentary” (go here)? I know what a pseudo-science is (e.g., Darwinism, in its claim to account for biological complexity). And I know what a “mockumentary” is (e.g., This is Spinal Tap). But how does one interview real people about what they really believe and come out with a “pseudo-documentary”? Well, perhaps we should not be surprised. Mark Perakh offered this insight at the Panda’s Thumb pseudo-blog.

I was speaking to one of the producers of Ben Stein’s EXPELLED the other day. We were discussing Yoko Ono’s suit against them for the brief clip of “Imagine” that appeared in EXPELLED. As it is, plenty of for-profit media/film outlets use clips of material for which they don’t get permission (you think the news networks or Jon Stewart’s Daily Show gets permission for everything they show?). Such use is legitimate and falls under what is called “fair use.” As I was speaking to the producer, he mentioned cryptically that there was a big development in the works that would greatly strengthen their hand against Ono. Well, it’s now clear what that is: “The right to quote from copyrighted works Read More ›